Leadership Team

William H. Connolly, Jr., CPCU

President & CEO

William H. Connolly, Jr. joined William H. Connolly & Co. after his graduation from Fairfield University in 1969. He has served the firm in various capacities and was named President in 1983. In addition to his management responsibilities, he handles a number of accounts in the institutional, hospital/health care, manufacturing and professional service areas.

Mr. Connolly received his CPCU designation in 1974. He has served on various insurance industry committees including the advisory councils of several insurers and, most recently, on the Governor's Panel on Malpractice Insurance for the Commissioner of Banking and Insurance.

For more than 25 years Mr. Connolly has led a team of health care insurance and risk management professionals who have created insurance programs for more than two dozen hospitals, established captive insurance companies and self insured trusts, designed professional liability, directors and officers and workers' compensation programs for a variety of health care providers to include nursing homes, physicians groups, and clinics, as well as pharmaceutical companies and biotech firms.

Mr. Connolly is a past president of the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Tooling and Manufacturing Association and served as a Trustee of Fairfield University. He served as the Chairman of the United Healthcare Foundation and on the Development Committee of Caldwell College. He has been a Trustee of St. Benedict's Preparatory School in Newark since 1987 and is currently serving as Board Chairman.

Areas of Focus:

Tom Coticchio, CPCU

Executive Vice President | Property/Package Specialist

Tom Coticchio, Executive Vice President, has worked for several national insurers including Chubb prior to joining the William H. Connolly & Co. team in 1985. In addition to his role on the Connolly Executive Management Team, Tom handles a number of accounts in the religious/nonprofit, hospital property, manufacturing, and professional services areas. He also serves as a resource on property rate and loss control analysis as well as manages the property and auto-mobile claims operations.

Tom is a graduate of the City University of New York, and received his Chartered Property and Casualty (CPCU) designation in 1992. He successfully completed Michigan State University’s Certified Workers Compensation Professional course, OSHA’s Certified Construction Safety trainer course, and has attended numerous conferences and seminars on fire protection and safety engineering. He has also served on product development advisory boards for several insurers.

For more than 20 years Tom has been a member of both client acquisition teams and client safety/risk management committees. He has developed business continuity/disaster plans, presided over public meetings on environmental concerns for institutional clients, and has consulted on the formation of institutional risk management departments.

Tom was elected to four terms on the Caldwell-West Caldwell Board of Education, including one term as President. For several years he was a guest lecturer for US History classes at James Caldwell High School and has previously served as a West Essex Community Emergency Response Team member. He assisted in the formation of a home for runaways in New York City and was a counselor for several years at a crisis intervention center. Tom and his wife, Mary-Jo, served two years on the Parent Advisory Board of Randolph Macon Women College, assisting the school in its recruitment efforts.

He served as a police officer in New York State, and served in the United State Air Force as an 81mm mortar gunner in Vietnam. Tom also spent one year as member of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity (The Trinitarians), a Roman Catholic Religious Order of Friars.

Tom and Mary-Jo live in West Caldwell, NJ. They have three grown daughters and four granddaughters.

Areas of Focus:

General Commercial
Religious/Non Profit
Higher Education

Kimberly A. Soricelli, AIC

Executive Vice President

Kim has over thirty years of insurance experience. Since joining William H. Connolly & Co., LLC in 1996 she has progressed from a Healthcare Account Executive handling institutional and physician accounts to an Executive Vice President overseeing a team of Account Executives, Representatives and Assistants in our Healthcare Risk Services, Commercial Insurance & Claims and Risk Management Divisions.

She is a recognized speaker on subjects such as Captive Insurance Companies, Directors & Officers Liability, Governmental Investigations and Workers' Compensation Plans.

Kim attended Rutgers University. She served as the Membership Chairperson and Bylaws Chairperson of the Society for Health Care Risk Management of New Jersey, and as Vice President of the Board of The Mental Health Association in Passaic County.

Areas of Focus:

Robert F. Schultz

Vice President

Robert F. Schultz is an Account Executive and Vice President with William H. Connolly & Co. He is a medical liability specialist with 38 years experience in multiple disciplines of Underwriting, Marketing, Risk Management, Loss Prevention, and Product Development. In addition, Bob has extensive background in captive development for health care institutions and physician risks.

With William H. Connolly & Co., Bob is responsible for managing the insurance programs for hospitals and health systems, several of which have captive programs created and/or managed by the agency. Bob is also responsible for managing the physician programs for these hospitals, as well as the independent physicians within the agency.

Bob's prior experience includes being the President, and Chief Operating Officer of a New Jersey Domiciled, physician-owned medical liability insurer (HPIX), focused on fulfilling the professional liability needs of its member owners.

Prior to HPIX, Bob served as an executive with Princeton Insurance Co. for over 20 years. During his tenure with Princeton, he held positions of Vice President of Underwriting, VP Marketing, VP Corporate & Customer Relations, and VP Strategic Development. Among his accomplishments, Bob managed a $200 million book of institutional and physician business, initiated territorial expansion into 16 states, created a Rent-a-Captive for institutional and physician risks, and negotiated reinsurance terms for high layer excess programs.

Bob is a licensed property/casualty producer in New Jersey with non-resident broker licenses in several additional states. He is a graduate of Rider University.

Areas of Focus:

Medical Professional Liability
Specialist with a focus on alternative Risk Structures
Lawyers Professional Liability

Kevin T. Walsh

Senior Vice President of Business Development

Kevin is one of William H. Connolly & Co.’s Senior Vice Presidents and is responsible for Business Development. He graduated from St. John’s University with a Bachelor of Science Business Administration, and from the Wharton School of Business where he completed the Advanced Executive Education Program.

Kevin is a licensed Property, Casualty and Benefits Producer in New Jersey with non-resident broker licenses in several additional states. He is also a keen flying enthusiast who holds a FAA Pilot License.

An experienced sales and management executive with 40 years of industry experience and an exceptionally strong track record in leading business units through major change to sustained revenue and profit growth, Kevin has been an outstanding leader and individual contributor throughout his career. His background includes rebuilding the sales teams, driving rapid sales growth for two units of a global broker and managing multiple locations for global and national brokers.

Kevin’s background is filled with personal achievements in the turnaround and revitalization of sales teams, spearheading new business development initiatives, managing major accounts, strengthening customer relations and consistently delivering higher-than-expected revenues and profits. He also boasts a broad range of expertise thanks to his experience in the Aviation, Chemical, Construction, Healthcare Manufacturing and Marine Industries.